Google escalates the competition in map services

May 16, 2013

New Google Maps: search results are labeled directly on the map (credit: Google)

On Wednesday, Google unveiled a new Google Maps, by far the biggest redesign since it introduced Maps eight years ago, The New York Times reports.

When users who are logged into Google visit Maps, they will see the places they frequently visit highlighted, like restaurants, museums and their home. Google learns the places they go by drawing information from all of Google’s services — including search and Maps history, Google Plus posts and information in users’ Gmail in-boxes.

When users visit a new city, Google will recommend places to go based on their preferences and those of people with similar tastes. The maps change in real time, so if you click on a museum, other museums in the city pop up and the small roads and landmarks needed to navigate to that museum appear.

The new service is available only to people who sign up for it to start, It will come to mobile devices later.

Google Earth, which shows 3-dimensional satellite imagery, is now incorporated into the online version of Google Maps, instead of being accessible only as an app to download. Google can do this because of a new technology that renders graphics inside a browser, instead of downloading images from a server.

Comments (8)

I absolutely do not want google snooping into my mail and storing where I’ve been – if we can’t opt out of this I will stop using google products altogether… this has the potential to be massively invasive of privacy. 1984 here we come!

” they will see the places they frequently visit highlighted, like restaurants, museums and their home. Google learns the places they go by drawing information from all of Google’s services — including search and Maps history, Google Plus posts and information in users’ Gmail in-boxes.”

Google gets progressively more creepy and nosy. I already know where I live. I don’t want them reading my mail to make a useless mark on map (or, more likely, to sell to advertisers).

I am fed up with these types of pseudo web “intelligence” that Google tries to put inside most of its products. First, the “Google search Bubble” (search that if you don’t know what it is), than this type of “smart” suggestions…
I don’t want to be shown what it seems to be interested to me, but better algorithms (like from example the search from Wolfram Alpha).
And without speaking about the concerns about privacy of course of all these interconnected products (Yeah we know, “Google is not devil”, of course…)

@ThePhi Bing is using Wolfram- but then you’d have to use Bing
I’m no fan of the bubble either but I also trust that the advances will continue and either that will mean better algorithms or that we just won’t be aware of the bubble thanks to the random seed.